This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Temple chapter.
Ah dark circles, one of the many unwelcome aspects of a morning after getting little to no sleep.
With finals quickly approaching, you may be having more “dark circle days” than less due to late
nights studying, and crying about how you’re probably going to fail your final that you studied
weeks for.
“A cool trick I learned is to put red lipstick under your eyes and then use concealer to get rid of
them,” said sophomore Deanna Crawford.
1. Hide Them
The simplest way to hide dark circles is to conceal them. Apply a concealer that is similar to
your skin tone. Sometimes adding concealer just isn’t enough and you need something to
brighten up your eyes. Using a highlighter under your eyes is a perfect way to make yourself
look more awake. A great product to use is E.l.f’s Under Eye Conceal and Highlight. It’s a two in
one tube that has liquid concealer on one side and highlighter on the other.
2. Freeze Them Out
Patrick Bateman from the 2000 film American Psycho isn’t necessarily a beauty guru. However,
he does give some good advice on how to get rid of puffiness. He uses an eye mask which is
made from a freezable liquid. Not everyone has one of these eye masks, but some cold tea
bags or a spoon could work. One of the theories behind the “dark circles” is that our blood
vessels under our eyes dilate, giving us the “bruised” looking appearance under our eyes.
Applying a cold compress will help the blood vessels to constrict and hopefully remove the
darkness.
3. Fight them with Medicine
Dark circles can sometimes be caused by allergies. According to Allure.com, allergic reactions
from histamines can cause swelling or leaky, broken capillaries under your eyes causing the
blood to pool and leave you with dark circles. If this is you, it might be easier to fight them with
an antihistamine such as Benadryl or Claritin. However, be mindful of which antihistamine you
are taking because some may cause drowsiness and that’s the last thing you need when you’re
trying to study or take a final.
4. Change Your Diet
Another reason those pesky dark circles are appearing could be because of your diet. Eating a
healthy diet will not only have you feeling good on the inside, it will have you looking great on
the outside as well. According to realsimple.com, foods that may improve blood flow to the skin
are flavone-rich dark chocolate and foods with lots of omega-3 fatty acids such as salmon and
walnuts. Improving blood flow will prevent the blood from pooling underneath your eyes.
5. Exercise
Sometimes dark circles appear due to your stressful lifestyle. When you’re in college it can feel
like there just aren’t enough hours in the day to do everything. It might be difficult to set some
time apart just for yourself, but taking care of yourself is so important. Although you’re young
and you may feel invincible now, your body will truly thank you later if you take the time to take
care of it properly. Exercise is a great way to relieve stress and get blood circulating which will
help get rid of those dark circles and leave you feeling better on the inside and the outside.